Escaped Slave

Today is St. Patrick's Day, a celebration of the one of the most-famous escaped slaves in history.

He's much better known for spreading Christianity in a pagan land. And for driving snakes out of Ireland. (Was that story symbolic of a clash with a snake-worshiping group of Druids? A symbolic reference to evil spirits of some kind? Or just a folk tale that developed out of imagination?)

Patrick's long association with Ireland that nation during the struggle for independence.

Thus, a Latin-speaking Briton born in Wales became a symbol of Ireland.

Essential skills?

I don't see "recompile the Linux kernel on your system" on this list. Or even "dual-boot a Windows machine with Linux."

Though both are a little hard to describe in the format given there.

Still, it's a list of useful skills and tools. Though it's oddly jumbled. (Why do "shine shoes" and "perform a perfect push-up" appear before "replace an electrical switch"? Why does "survive a tire blowout" show up in the middle of the series, but "jump start a car" show up at the end? Jump-starting is a much more common need than is surviving a blowout.)

Of the skills and tools listed, I think I've performed, or at least learned the rudiments of half of them. Most of the electrical, home-repair, or vehicle-related items I've learned from my father. A few others I've learned on my own.

Taxing

A person attempting to read the entire U.S. Tax Code faces a daunting task.

Much more daunting than attempting to read the entirety of the Christian Scripture, for instance.

Admittedly, most citizens of the U.S. are in a category which allows the taxpayer to read the instructions for Form 1040, followed by the instructions for Schedule A and a handful of related documents...or to trust the computer wizards who created TurboTax.

Still, there can be surprises for people who aren't well-versed in the tax code.

Gifts, inheritance, basis points, self-employment taxes, married-filing-separately or married-filing-jointly, ...and the tax-that-was-not-called-a-tax for people who fail to purchase health insurance.

It's a mess.

I'll keep on reading the Bible. And I'll try to keep an eye on the tax code.

But I'll note that it's very hard for mis-interpretation of the Bible to lead to jail terms and hefty fines.

And that if I get bad advice from a tax preparer or an employee of the Internal Revenue Service's help-desk, I am considered at fault.

Hard to explain that one

As seen on "Survive the Streets" on Facebook:

I know that by now all of you have heard about the 18-month old girl that was rescued from an overturned vehicle after fourteen hours in freezing temps. Now, all four officers involved with the discovery have gone on record saying they heard a woman softly calling for help. The child was unconscious and the child's mother had already passed. There was no one nearby.

The story has been reported in many places. (Link to a local news story.)

This is one of those stories that defy explanation. Several different people heard a call for help, but the stricken infant did not make the call. And the deceased adult in the car didn't cry out.

What explanation should be preferred?

If a spontaneous mass hallucination led to a rescued child, is that not a miracle?

If a Divinely-ordained voice mimicked the sound of a woman in need of help, is that not a miracle?

For some reason, I'm reminded of a quote from Hamlet. "There are more things in Heaven and on Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophies."

Daylight Savings

A couple days late, maybe... but still worth a few words.

The practice of artifically moving the "Local Time" backwards or forwards is odd.

I had no idea of the reason, until I found a chart like this one (sourced from here).

Locally, under Daylight Savings, sunrise comes between 0530 and 0600 in June. Sunset comes between 2130 and 2200. (That 9:30 PM and 10:00 PM to people who don't use 24-hour clocks.)

Without Daylight Savings, sunrise would come before 0500 in the morning in June!

I think that the American culture has decided that it is better to tinker with clocks so that sunrise is after 0500 in the morning. Even if the price is long, late summer evenings in June. And if there is a lot of hassle and dislocation during one week of Spring and one week of Fall.

Winter not yet gone

A few days ago, I was expecting warmer weather.

For the first week of March, the local area has gotten a mix of snow and freezing rain, and lots of cold. The freezing rain left an beautifully-smooth layer of ice on top of the snow.

The weather predictions say that thawing is coming this weekend. We'll see what happens.

Still winter?

One month ago, while traveling to a party involving some sort of football-game championship, I saw a snowmobile. On 8 Mile road. (I could say of movie fame...but it wasn't the section of 8 Mile that separates Detroit from northern suburbs. I was further west, where the road separates Wayne County suburbs from Oakland County suburbs.)

It was a very snowy day, and the Monday that followed was peppered with school closures due to snow.

About a week after that, a temporary warm spell had appeared. While most of the snow was present, it was obviously melting. I even saw a motorcycle on the road one afternoon.

Then the weather snapped back to cold. And remained cold. To produce an average-temperature-for-February lower than most years since the 1880s.

Almost as if the weather were watching the calendar, things began warming up for the first day of March.

But it still looks like winter outside. And the snow will likely remain on the ground until late March.